ext4 problem - ENOSPC bug

toad · 2009-04-22 05:21:29

I get a serious number of error messages in /var/log/messages.log and they all look like this:

Apr 22 07:03:40 deskarch kernel: ext4: find_group_flex failed, fallback succeeded dir 2596

On boot up today I got 2000 such messages.

toad@deskarch 696\11 ~ > grep Apr\ 22 /var/log/messages.log | wc -l
2021

BUT

toad@deskarch 697\12 ~ > grep find_group_flex /var/log/messages.log | wc -l
70364

This log started on 18th April so there must be something funny going on here...

So far I have googled but no hits!?! If I find the time today I will investigate but would be more than grateful for a hint or two.

Last edited by toad (2009-04-22 05:35:00)

toad · 2009-04-22 05:32:14

I googled again 'cos I couldn't believe there was nothing!!! I mean, am I the only one in the world

And bingo - http://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/11954/ or http://linux.derkeiler.com/Mailing-List … 07563.html

Sounds like it is some kernel thing but I do not honestly understand it in the slightest... Apparently it is called the ENOSPC bug so I amended the subject of the first post accordingly.

Thing is, all the posts are from February and since then nada.

Last edited by toad (2009-04-22 05:36:21)

toad · 2009-04-22 05:40:23

Apparently there is a patch out for it - might this have been overlooked for the Arch kernel? BTW, I'm on a 64 bit box.

fphillips · 2009-04-23 02:52:14

Upgrade your kernel. This should be in 2.6.29:
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/g … b594fb6156
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/g … 5cd84#l700

Which Arch has had since 9 April, I believe.

FYI, Arch doesn't seek out and pick up random patches like this to put in its kernel. We just package up the latest stable kernel released. If you look in any given kernel26 PKGBUILD, you won't see any patches included, other than something like aufs which is developed out-of-tree and has to be patched in.

Last edited by fphillips (2009-04-23 03:15:14)

toad · 2009-04-23 03:45:24

Thanks for the info, fphillips!

I keep my system up to date:

toad@deskarch 728\7 ~ > cat /proc/version
Linux version 2.6.29-ARCH (root@T-POWA-LX) (gcc version 4.3.3 (GCC) ) #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Apr 17 14:14:28 CEST 2009

The error message disappeared and hasn't returned since a reboot so who knows what happened there. I'm just glad it is gone for the time being. I'll be keeping an eye on my messages.log just in case it returns...

Arch Linux

#1 2009-04-22 05:21:29

ext4 problem - ENOSPC bug

#2 2009-04-22 05:32:14

Re: ext4 problem - ENOSPC bug

#3 2009-04-22 05:40:23

Re: ext4 problem - ENOSPC bug

#4 2009-04-23 02:52:14

Re: ext4 problem - ENOSPC bug

#5 2009-04-23 03:45:24

Re: ext4 problem - ENOSPC bug

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